Care advocates across the nation this week are celebrating two new Biden Administration rules aimed at improving care in nursing homes and raising the salaries of home and community-based workers after years of organizing by patients, care workers, and their allies.
Archives: Voices
The expanding scourge of child exploitation in the U.S. workforce
Child labor violations in the U.S. workforce are sharply on the rise, in part because of some employers seeking to pay workers less in a tight labor market, an increasing number of states rolling back laws protecting children, and an industry-wide effort to eliminate such protections on both the state and federal level.
Lawmakers should spend a night in a homeless shelter
If there’s one thing I could tell lawmakers, it would be to bring back the expanded, monthly, fully refundable Child Tax Credit. Lawmakers are now considering a more modest expansion. It doesn’t go far enough, but it could lift another 400,000 kids out of poverty — children like the ones I worked with.
CHN’s Human Needs Watch: Tracking Hardship, April 19, 2024
The Affordable Connectivity Program edition. One of the 21st century’s many enduring racial and class barriers is the digital divide. As of 2021, Black and Latino adults were almost twice as likely as White adults to lack broadband access. For many, whether you have access to high-speed internet too often depends on the color of your skin or the zip code in which you live – both strongly correlated with poverty.
Criminalizing the unhoused: ‘Make it uncomfortable enough for them in our city so they will want to move on down the road.’
On Monday, April 22, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Grants Pass v. Johnson, which observers are calling the most important case in decades involving the rights of unhoused people. At issue: can cities, counties, and states punish people with fines or even jail time who sleep in public places when shelter beds or affordable housing are not available? Or does such action by governments constitute a violation of the Eighth Amendment, which bans cruel and unusual punishment?
The reality and complexity of homelessness in America
Imagine losing everything you had. Your stability, your privacy, and in many cases basic respect from others. In 2023, over 653,000 individuals (about half the population of Hawaii) in the U.S. experienced homelessness.
PBS NewsHour examined America’s safety net. It found holes.
As we mark Care Workers Awareness Month, advocates, political leaders, and the media are becoming more aware of the importance of building a care economy. Recently, PBS NewsHour embarked upon a five-part series entitled “America’s Safety Net.” The powerful series (you can find all five parts here) touched upon many of the issues we consider to be part of care infrastructure – Medicaid, Medicare, ACA, affordable housing, and the once-expanded Child Tax Credit, just to name a few.
April is Care Workers Recognition Month – and the White House took note.
Crystal Gail Crawford already had spent 15 years in the child care industry and was working as a nanny when the pandemic hit. “I loved my job,” she said at the White House this week. “But like many of you, I lost my job during the pandemic. And then I was in a terrible car accident – suddenly I found myself without a job and (with) chronic back pain.”
Six reasons to promote IRS Direct File now
As Tax Day nears, the need to connect more eligible people to Direct File, a new digital tax filing tool from the IRS, is becoming more urgent. Direct File allows eligible taxpayers to file their taxes directly with the IRS securely, quickly, and for free. April 15 is the last day for most eligible filers to use IRS Direct File during this pilot year.
CHN’s Human Needs Watch: Tracking Hardship, April 5, 2024
The Medicaid Unwinding Edition. One year ago this week, states were required to begin a process known as “Medicaid unwinding” — determining who on their Medicaid rolls was eligible to remain on Medicaid and who was not. During the pandemic, Congress told states not to do the usual periodic determinations of eligibility, so that people would remain eligible for health care if they contracted COVID-19. But as part of a spending bill passed in December 2022, states were required to resume their eligibility checks. As of the end of March, there were nearly 12 million fewer people on Medicaid, compared to a year before, of whom nearly 5 million were children.
You could save thousands of dollars this 2024 tax season
Tax season has arrived! Between now and April 15, you should plan to file your Tax Year 2023 taxes. Follow our steps below to make sure you don’t miss out on any tax benefits for you and your family.
The future of the Affordable Connectivity Program is uncertain — take action!
The internet is an integral part of our lives in this digital age. Nowadays, we rely on the internet not only for staying in touch with friends and family and entertainment but also for worship, work, health care, and managing our finances.